Excerpt from On Aquatic Carnivorous Coleoptera or DytiscidæSome years ago I commenced a special study of the Dytiscidae, with the Object of increasing the recorded information about this family of beetles. I had been previously, for a considerable period, specially interested in the family, and when beginning my studies, I hoped particularly that I should be able to improve the very imperfect classification in vogue, and I also wished to know whether a detailed knowledge of the varied structural peculiarities of the species would be consistent with the belief that the present condition of these had been reached by a process of gradual modification or evolution, and whether an intimate acquaintance with the intricate relations existing between the diverse components Of the family would render credible the hypothesis that these are descended from a few ancestors or even from a single very remote ancestor.Now that I am Offering to the Royal Dublin Society the work that has occupied me for some years, I feel that I must in the first place make an apology for its imperfections and omissions. I have accomplished but little - so little that, in comparison with what I have left undone, I feel it to be almost as nothing. Our knowledge Of the earlier stages of the life Of Coleoptera, and of their meta morphoses is very imperfect, and in the case Of the aquatic species there are special difficulties in the way of acquiring information of this nature, thus it happens that we know very little of the life histories of the Dytiscidae - so little that it cannot aid at present in the classification of these insects, and I have therefore limited my efforts to producing an arrangement based on the structures of the perfect insect.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.